[dnanian]

The thing is, gryphonent, that "fully compatible" in this case, isn't true. Unless they handle these things, they're partially compatible. They seem to work for you now, but are you using tools that carefully compare all the files and metadata on both source and copy to check?

As I've said in the blog and here, it's not just Time Machine. Not. These are normal things that can be on normal drives.

It's like properly copying ACLs and EAs. A Tiger user might not notice that those things weren't being copied properly. A Leopard user might not either -- until it's too late, and data's been lost... just because a program today isn't using ACLs or EAs or hard linked folders (etc) doesn't mean it won't start using them tomorrow. Time Machine's just a good test case, because it's pretty over-the-top about this stuff.